The White Panda

First off, happy Monday. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a Mashup Monday, but I hope yall can forgive me. Now that that’s behind us, here’s our first mashup. It’s by our dude Ricky Cervantes and it got Drake, Krewlla, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem all on one track and it sounds amazing.

Second, bet you never thought you’d hear Kendrick and Katy Perry on the same track? Particularly not after meeting angry kid Kendrick on “Control.” Ah but alas, The White Panda wanted it to happen, so it did.

Third,Arjun sent me this little gem today, in perfect time for Mashup Monday. The Tutankhamun Brothersfound a way to blend Kanye West and The Beatles in a way that sometimes (and frankly more times than I would have expected) actually sounds decent. Not quite Danger Mouse/The Grey Album status, but this is good stuff.

Haven’t done a Mashup Monday in a hot minute, but the time has come, my friends! Back on my grind, and in need of some good party tunes, so why not turn to mashups, naw mean? Hit the jump for a whole list of the best mashups I could get my hands on.

Tell me you’ve seen a mashup with a better lineup than the first one on today’s docket. The White Panda outdid themselves with Ellie Goulding, Kendrick Lamar, RHCP and The Lumineers all in one mashup. I nearly threw in the towel and quit after that one, but more mashups were calling my name this week, lucky for you guys. Also, I’m typically morally opposed to 2Chainz, but this mashup that The Hood Internet threw together with 2Chainz and STRFKR is just so jiggy. I can’t help myself! Fuck 2Chainz, tho.

So each week I struggle with what to name this Mashup Monday. So I’m going to number them from now on, and starting today, I’m taking an educated guess here by saying it’s week 130. Yes, it’s a guess, but it seems…somewhat…accurate? That means I’ve been doing Mashup Monday for almost 2.5 years, and considering the blog has been around for almost four years, I’ve done Mashup Mondays for most of those four years, but there are many Mondays without the feature (either because I didn’t have time or I didn’t find good mashups to share), so…130 seems about right. If that’s true, that’s a whole lot of mashups, and a whoooooole lot of Mondays. But that just means that Mondays AREN’T impossible to get through, even though I seem to think they are each week when my alarm clock goes off. Alas. New week, Monday is almost over, and the mashups are still alive!

I nearly forgot it was Monday today, as I’m enjoying a nice 9-day vacation. If you’re reading this and you’re still in school, appreciate any vacation you get. That shit doesn’t exist for more than a couple days in the real world. Just thinking about the fact that I used to have 3 1/2 week spring breaks in high school makes me cringe. What a lucky little shit I was. Anyway, onto the mashups. Apparently these guys have the power to make some people smile, so I’ll do my best to stay on top of them more. Here’s this week’s batch.

This is just a lethal pairing. You can try to say that you are so sick of these songs by this point, you want to smash your head into a pile of bricks when you see the title, but it’s a whole new experience when you listen to them together. Oh. My. God. I’m. Drunk. Already.

Here’s an older, chill tune from our boy BAHLER that I skipped over when I wasn’t able to post Mashup Mondays every week. My fault; this is a gem.

5. Empire Heart of Gold (Neil Young x Jay-Z) – GenErik

The Neil Young original will always remind me of Forrest Gump. Who’s going to take mashups to the next level and create a remix of Forrest Gump that’s tricked out with bitches, grills, chains, and Hennessy?

This song doesn’t really capture my attention (ew, sorry…honestly didn’t intend for that pun, despite my undying love for puns) until around 1:15 when Chromeo came into the mix (pun*ked again), but that’s about when I jumped off the couch and started jumping around the room and punching the air. Just kidding.

It’s been a while since I’ve found the inspiration to put together a Mashup Monday post, and I’m not sure whether I’m getting over mashups, or maybe there just haven’t been enough quality mashups to keep my attention. Either way, that’s all bullshit nonsense today, because I found some mashups that are more than worth your time. What does that make them? Shit, I don’t know. Just listen.

1. Say Hello vs. Because (Jay-Z x The Beatles) – The Melker Project

This is a rare Beatles acapella, and the two songs just sound so natural together. I love it.

2. The Mixtape Volume 6 – The Hood Internet

There’s no doubt about it: The Hood Internet are some of the best mashup artists of our time. It’s their ability to mash up indie hipster music with hip-hop or more mainstream stuff. It might be the only time hipster fuckers and mainstream fuckers get along. Download all songs here.

Everybody knows The White Panda by now, right? It would probably be difficult for me to go around any campus and find people that don’t know who these mashup masters are. Well, they’re back with a brand new ‘frablum’ and it’s the perfect balance of a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You got your new music, and then your music that’s a little dated (but still awesome) combined into one!

Racks on racks on racks, tracks on tracks on tracks! Give this one a listen…pow!

I’ve recently gotten really into Avicii, along with the rest of the world, I think. This is a softer mashup, combining Britney’s vocals very smoothly with Avicii’s instrumentals. Great summer mashup. As always, The White Panda delivers.

2. I’ve never really been one for dubstep, but D Prep‘s Womp Womp Wednesdays have opened me up a bit to them. I think one of my main requirements right now is that I recognize the song that’s been remixed, if it’s a remix dubstep track, so at least there’s familiarity to enjoy. And then there are people who just do a really good job of adding value to the track rather than detracting it. DOSVEC has done a good job with Weezy’s hit track, “Lollipop,” I think. I can handle it…definitely a good party track.

This one has a heavy bassline that’s addictive. I had forgotten about this song from Secondhand Serenade, and frankly I hadn’t thought about Jeezy in a while, but Not Some Kid brings them back hard. This is a bit reminiscent of Brenton Duvall’s music, though I think it’s still got a way to go before it can really reach that level. As yall know, Brenton is a favorite here at Sunset. I’ll keep my eye on you, though, Not Some Kid.

Mashups have become a part of my life through running this site, so it pleases me to say that mashups have variety. There are some that are just a blend of two songs, others are a handful of songs, and a unique few are a total blend of so many songs you don’t even know where to begin counting. These last type are few and far between, and the names that immediately come to mind are DJ EARWORM and Norwegian Recycling. The thing is, there are so many people who try to make this type of mashup and it comes out looking like a blueberry pancake that was made with rotten blueberries. That’s never a good thing. I tend to think that Norwegian Recycling does the job the best, and part of the reason is because he always releases a video to go along with the mastered tracks.

Voodoo Farm has been making a big name for themselves lately. Here’s a mashup that uses some dub-ish features and blends Wiz Khalifa and 2Pac. Something tells me a lot of yall are going to salivate over this one.

The White Panda is one of the best mashup groups out there, in my opinion. These two guys have mastered the art of mashup music. I still remember way back in the day when my family rolled around town in a super old school, tri-colored Suburban that only had a tape deck and my sister would play “mix tapes” that she created. About 30 seconds from each song for an entire tape. Thank god we’ve at least reached a point where we can blend songs and make them sound good. My sisters tapes were miserable. It’s okay though, I think she’ll admit to that, too.

Two Guys, Living Halfway Across The Country From One Another, Quit Their Jobs and Make Mashups For a Living

The mashup has become a played out art; few do it well, too many do it. In a land of poorly-mixed songs flooding the genre, a few artists stick out as the leaders of the pack: Girl Talk, Super Mash Bros, and The White Panda. I had a chance to sit down (virtually) with one half of The White Panda the other night to discuss life, aspirations, and music. Dan Griffith, better known as DJ Griffi, first started making music back in high school.“When I got to college,” Griffi told me, “I was really influenced by dance music, particularly house/electro and my style sort of shifted with that.”He points to Girl Talk as one of the influences that got him into the mashup genre.“Coinciding with my interest in dance music, really innovative artists like Girl Talk were putting out neat stuff that I was a big fan of. I basically started playing around with that kind of fusion. I wanted to put a spin on what I saw him having success with.”

As one might assume from their extremely eclectic mashups (The White Panda has pulled samples from artists ranging from Maroon 5 to The Who, Britney Spears to Kelly Clarkson, Rich Boy to Earth, Wind & Fire), Griffi pulls inspiration from everywhere. “I’m very open minded about music across all genres which helps me keep my ears open at all times. I can literally be at a café somewhere and a cool song comes on the radio that I connect with, or I’ll watch the new Target commercial and use that as my next sample. Just always looking for something that catches my ear.” When asked what music DJ Griffi listens to in his free time, he can’t really pinpoint anybody, which is an asset if anything. “I listen to everything from Cat Stevens to Deadmau5, so it’s hard to pinpoint what type of music I truly listen to in my free time.Artists I’m currently digging though? Mimosa, Felguk, and Matt and Kim’s new album.”

“Traveling is awesome but exhausting at times”

With such varied musical inspirations, Griffi and Tom Evans, aka Procast, the other half of The White Panda, have been able to find consistent success.On the road from Wednesday to Sunday, Griffi and Procast have been able to spread their music through live shows across the nation.“Traveling is awesome but exhausting at times. It’s cool getting to see all parts of the country, but the long travel days catch up to you at times.Performing is always awesome no matter what.I love getting out there and connecting with the crowd-it’s a rush unlike anything else and never gets old.Some crazy shows this fall have been UMass where there were like 5,000 kids rowdy kids packed into an arena.”

While Girl Talk is a single producer (Gregg Gillis), The White Panda has the advantage of two sets of ears to critique and perfect their music.“I live out in LA,” Griffi told me, “and Tom lives out in Chicago. So, for about half the week we link up and travel and do shows, and the other half we live in our own worlds.It works well.It’s good having another ear on production to help critique and offer additional insight.”They often start mixes individually, and then bring their mixes together and collaborate.“We’ll typically send concepts back and forth and add our two cents into the idea to try and make it better.”

“Sometimes I […] can finish it in a day. Other times […] several weeks

When it comes time for White Panda to produce music, ideas and songs come about in varied ways. “Sometimes I know exactly how I want a certain track to sound and can finish it in a day. Other times I will tweak and alter a song over a period of several weeks to get it so it sounds right. We like to drop a lot of cool new content all at once-stuff that we’ve been working on for a while, stuff we’ve been perfecting at shows.Sometimes we find absolutely dirty beats and go look for a vocal that will work, and other times we find a high energy vocal and we’ll search for a beat that works.”

The White Panda has found a huge amount of success at doing something they love to do. Asked to describe the experience-quitting well-paid consulting jobs to tour the nation, play music for thousands of kids, and develop a massive fan base in the process-in one word, Griffi doesn’t hesitate to respond; “Filthy.”